London, 24 Rabiul Akhir 1434 H/6 March 2013 (MINA) – Palestinian prisoner Samer Al-Issawi has called on the British government to force the Israeli regime to abandon its controversial practice of administrative detention, which allows holding Palestinians indefinitely without charging them or trial.

Writing in The Guardian’s Comment, Issawi said the UK government should impose sanctions on Israel “until it ends the occupation, recognizes Palestinian rights and frees all Palestinian political prisoners,” according to Press TV reports monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), Wednesday. Referring to Britain’s “historic responsibility for the tragedy” of Palestinian people, he said, “Israel would not dare continue its oppression of the Palestinians without the support of western governments.” The 33 year old Palestinian man who has refused food for more than 210 days in protest at his imprisonment in Israeli detention centers, argued that his death will be a victory for refusal to surrender to the regime’s “occupation, its tyranny and arrogance”. Issawi was arrested in July 2012 only months after being released as part of a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas. Over 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli prisons, many of them without charge or trial. Earlier in February, the Palestinian Return Center (PRC) organization launched an international campaign aiming to collect one million signatures asking Britain to apologize to the Palestinian people for its “past atrocities” starting with the Balfour Declaration and for the human rights abuse suffered by Palestinian citizens under the UK’s mandate.(T/P05/E1)